Sunday, September 29, 2013

Editorial: NuLu goes west

NuLu Fest
Saturday marked the 5th annual NuLu fest on East Market street, where I grew up. Back then it was called The East Market Street District. the neighborhood has obviously has changed a lot. as a child we lived next the Muth's candy store. After school I would go to the neighborhood Boys and Girls Club until it closed down, after that the women at Muth's would keep an eye on me while my dad worked. He had a small shop on the street making stained glass windows. Many of the neighborhood children's parents had small businesses on the block or booths at the Hay Market (also on Market Street). Today Muth's is all that's left of my childhood. The neighborhood doesn't even have the same name it used to.

Now, and sometimes reluctantly, it's called Nulu, a portmanteau  of  the words New and Louisville, even tho its one of the oldest neighborhoods in the city. The buildings are all still there but it is a different neighborhood. Don't get me wrong, I am very thankful there is interest in keeping the neighborhood alive, but it's a bitter pill. The neighborhood was in trouble when I was young. So many people moved south and east and the business went with it. The final nail was probably when the Hay Market, open since the 1800s closed in the 1980s. many of my friends had to move out. but there was a push to keep the neighborhood alive, mostly through people like Billy Hertz and Tom Schneff and others who opened new shops on Market street in the late 80s and early 90s like Gallerie Hertz, Kathryn's and Kathryn's, Kim's, and Zephyr Gallery. It worked. By the early 90s my family had to move further back into Butchertown as the rents rose. First we moved to Washington Street and then to Franklin where my Dad still lives. Butchertown was an amazing place to grow up. It wasn't as vacant as Market street, and it held many of the values we now look for in a neighborhood. It had many businesses and had people from a wide socioeconomic variety. People could live, work and go to school all in the same neighborhood. 

In the last 10 years or so, with the help of Gill Holland, many new people have moved into the area. Of the block my dad lives on, only 3 original families are still there. I finally had to move off of Main Street, where i had been for 7 years due to the skyrocketing rent. The truth is the Main and Market street areas did need help but the collateral damage was that many of the families who grew up there and the existing businesses couldn't compete with the rising costs and new interests. The Wesley House community center on Washington Street that among other things gave childcare to the neighborhood working families and had been there for over 100 years had to follow those working families to the south end  and the Wesley House Building is now upscale Condos. It all heated up when Gill Holland bought a 120 year old building in 2006 (was the Sternau's Building, now called The Green Building) and spearheaded the scaling up of the neighborhood. The original residents saw what was happening but didn't know what to do about it. Called "The Maestro of East Market Street" (no joke, it's in this WHAS article), Gill Holland has now bought a 160 year old building (the Montgomery Street School building, now being called The Compassion Building)  in the Portland Neighborhood and is now set on "revitalizing" that neighborhood. The WHAS article says Holland wants to see people buy houses instead of rent them. but in an area where it's existing population are of low income, like Butchertown and East Market  was, the renters are pushed out. the article starts "Its crime rate is high. Many of its buildings and homes are vacant or falling apart. So why is one of the city's most successful entrepreneurs packing  up everything and moving to the Portland neighborhood?" This could be said of the East Market Street Neighborhood just a few years ago.  A new business owner in Butchertown told me he thought of the revitalization there was "white flight correcting it's self." but you can't condemn a population that's already there because the people with business and money abandoned you and then later want to force you out once the property value has plummeted. I'd hate to see the history (and name) of Portland lost like my old neighborhood. There has got to a middle ground. there has got to be a way to empower the local community that is already there, help them open businesses and buy their homes and in the process lower crime without displacing them for people who already have the means.

Really, I don't mean to be a hater of what East market has become, I go there all the time. I just can't afford to live there now. I just really wish Holland and others could have put their  money and efforts into helping and keeping it's existing residents there at the same time. and I really hope the people of Portland voice any concerns while NuPo is still  in it's beginning stages. And don't let them change your neighborhood's name, with it will go your identity.

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Review: IamIs & Tamara Dearing Split 7"


Gubbey Records released Vol. 3 of its Split Series on Saturday. The single features IamIs' song "Paperface" and Tamara Dearing's "Break Your Heart" on a vinyl only release with a download card including five bonus tracks. Not to mention the fact that it's on bubblegum pink vinyl as a tribute to the single's "sugary sweet sound."

The first track of this release that Gubbey Records calls a "little honeycomb", is a psychedelic pop ballad brought to you to by two prominent contributors of the Slow Break and the Cut Family Foundation: Shawna Dellecave and Jason Cox. The duo wastes no time leaping headlong into this organ and humbucker fueled drive down a summer country road, lyrically climaxing with the lines: "you gotta' shake hands naturally/ sell yourself, that's the key/ you're a brand, that's all."

Tamara Dearing knows how to use a Wurlitzer, and for proof of this, look no further than the B side of this hot pink piece of wax in your hands. You must have an awesome record collection. On "Break Your Heart," Dearing's keyboards and lyrics sing like a doo-wop outfit while her drums groove like feel-good gangster rap, proclaiming "these are the records I play when I can't stand up straight."



New Look

We have been working on updating and expanding our content and at the urging of our newest writer Logan Nichols (See Staff Page Here) we have been playing with a new look to go with our new outlook. Please let us know what you think or if you have any ideas on layout, colors, format, content, anything.
Thank You -Team Flood

37FLOOD yesterday

We Took some inspiration from this year's Cropped Out Poster:
Cropped Out is this weekend folks, so get out there, and Go Nuts!

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Zombie Attack 2013 photos

Click Pictures to view full galleries 
 Magbooth Photos Magbooth Photos

@louisvillezombieattack Instagram photos @louisvillezombieattack Instagram photos
Metromix Photos
Metromix Photos
WFPL photos WFPL photos

2769780_G WAVE 3 zombie photos

   

Monday, September 16, 2013

In Utero: 20th Anniversary Re-issue



            Saturday marked the 20 year anniversary of Nirvana’s last studio album’s release in America. Initially, the album was available on vinyl and cassette tape only, with a CD release on September 21st, 1993. Accordingly, the remaining members of the band along with Universal Records are releasing a remastered version of the album on September 24 to commemorate this year’s landmark in the band’s history. The Super Deluxe version of the release boasts: “more than 70 [Steve Albini] remastered, remixed, rare and unreleased recordings, including B-sides, compilation tracks, never-before-heard demos and live material featuring the final touring lineup of Cobain, Novoselic, Grohl, and Pat Smear,” as well as a DVD of the band’s full performance at Seattle’s Pier 48 on December 13, 1993.
            There are also four other, cheaper, releases for those of us belonging to the 99% who can’t afford (or don’t want) to drop $150 on a big box set, that all include unreleased Steve Albini mixes of the album, various live cuts, and other rarities associated . Full details are available here. My eye’s on the triple LP Anniversary Edition as the best value ($50).
            So to keep up with the acclaimed Nirvana/Albini collaboration (37 Flood is torn between the two) we’re gonna’ catch up with the obnoxious bassist who threw his instrument fifteen feet into the air only for it to come crashing down on his face at the 1992 VMAs. Turns out he was found hours later holding ice to his head, drinking champagne with Brian May. Not a bad deal.
            
           
                 Since he’s the only living member of Nirvana who didn’t hop onto the Foo Fighters after the April 5, 1994 assassination, it’s understandable that most people don’t know Krist Novoselic joined the influential punk outfit Flipper in 2006. But more importantly, when Washington State included the Erotic Music Law in 1995, Krist jumped to action starting the Joint Artists and Musicians Political Action Committee (JAMPAC) to fight the law that would heavily support Censorship, taking the stance that the First Amendment protects the freedom of artists and viewers alike to create and patronize as they wish. JAMPAC also took down the Seattle Teen Dance Ordinance, a law that prohibited persons under the age of 21 attending late-night concerts.
            In 2008, Novoselic  became the chairman of FairVote, an organization that promotes and encourages ease of access to voting for all people. On top of that, the man was also elected Democratic State Committeeman for Wahkiakum County.
           You can hear an exclusive interview that Novoselic did with Dave Grohl and Bob Boilen to promote the reissue on npr.org.
              
More information about Krist Novoselic is available here.